Sydney

Sydneysiders keep an eye out for the City of Sydney’sGreen Villages branded Gifts of Seeds. These will be used as part of the city’s partnership with Grow It Local, encouraging residents to grow their own food and live more sustainably.

This is our second custom design for the City of Sydney (see the first ones here), who will be giving these organic basil and organic coriander seeds away at upcoming Green Villages Workshops. They will also be distributed across Sydney cafes who use local produce, who will give them to customers to spread the word!

The Sustainability Marketing team loved our latest Gift of Seeds collection so these custom designed packets are again illustrated by the fabulous Daniella Germain, whose gorgeous illustration of Sydney’s quintessential terraces adorn the card.

Green Villages have some great free workshops on everything from balcony gardening to natural cleaning. Grow It Local is all about encouraging backyard, balcony, community and windowsill food farming, bringing people together and having fun. You can post your own veggie patch on the Grow It Local Map and share your garden via #growitlocal on instagram. Check out our little patch here!

The Royal Botanic Gardens (RBG) in Sydney is one of the most well-known gardens in Australia and as such we were honoured and thrilled to create a custom designed RBG Gift of Seeds. The packets are currently being placed in hotel rooms at the Four Season Hotel (Sydney) as an innovative way for guests to support the Gardens and in doing so, help to protect Australian plant species in threatened habitats.

Paper Daisies were chosen as they are one of the most popular features at the Gardens in Spring and are easy to grow from seed. The design of the packets was created with Karen Rinkel, the Garden’s graphic designer, who applied a vintage botanical illustration of the paper daisies (Rhodanthe chlorocephala subsp. rosea ‘Rosy Everlasting’) combined with the layout and a few elements from our retail packets.

The Royal Botanic Gardens raise half of their funding independently which contributes to maintaining the gardens, conservation and heritage projects, science, research, education and outreach. If you would like to show your support for the gardens by purchasing one of these lovely packets, pop over to the Gardens Shop.

We’re really proud of these custom designed Gifts of Seeds for a few reasons. Firstly because they are part of a fabulous program which celebrates sustainable living and ‘growing your own’, and secondly because we had the opportunity to work with The City of Sydney!

We were delighted to hear that the council’s Sustainability Marketing team thought our Gifts of Seeds were great, and that they’d love to have a custom design for the Green Villages Brand. Green Villages is all about inspiring individuals to live more sustainably. They hold workshops on creating balcony gardens and growing food in small spaces, and they have just launched a website all about educating the community on how to live green!

We aren’t exactly sure where or when the packets will be handed out at this stage, but there are two kinds, organic basil and organic coriander to look out for. They are quite distinctive in their 100% recycled packaging, so if anyone sees them around, please let us know!

I am pretty stoked to have caught Joost Greenhouse in Sydney over the weekend. The modular, recyclable construction is made out of an innovative steel framing system where the steel is printed and cut on-site, reducing waste and minimising transport emissions. Straw bales are used for insulation, the floor is made out of car tyres and the light fittings are glass jars. All materials can be re-used and given the temporary nature of the structure (it’s only in Sydney for 8 weeks) this is highly relevant! Best of all, the exterior is covered in luscious strawberry plants and the rooftop bar is bursting with herbs and vegetables which enjoy the best views in Sydney. All this put together creates an incredible bar, cafe and hub of eco friendly goodness.

We were lucky to catch Joost up there watering the plants which supply the kitchen – I nervously introduced myself but Joost was very friendly and chatted to us about the building and mentioned how buggered he was and how he has been invited to set up Greenhouses all over the world, amazing! That’s him in the photo above watering our soon-to-be lunch.

Joost is a big inspiration for me not only with his forward thinking ‘gardening not architecture’ ethos, but also for his amazing floral installations and the awesome Urban Crop. Here’s hoping Joost needs an apprentice and thinks of me when he does!